From the health point of view we are living in a marvelous age. We are immunized (免疫) from birth against many of the most dangerous diseases. A large number of once deadly illnesses can now be cured by modern drugs and medical treatment. It is almost certain that one day cures will be found for the most stubborn remaining diseases. The expectation of life has increased enormously. But though the possibility of living a long and happy life is greater than ever before, every day we witness the unbelievable slaughter (屠杀) of men, women and children on the roads. Man vs the motor-car! It is a never-ending battle which man is losing. Thousands of people the world over are killed or horribly killed each year and we are quietly sitting back and letting it happen.
It has been rightly said that when a man is sitting behind a steering wheel (方向盘), his car becomes the extension of his personality. There is no doubt that the motor-car often brings out a man’s very worst qualities. People who are normally quiet and pleasant may become unrecognizable when they are behind a steering-wheel. They are ill-mannered and aggressive, willful as two-year-olds and absolutely selfish. All their hidden disappointments and regrets seem to be brought by the act of driving.
The surprising thing is that society smiles so kindly on the motorist and seems to forgive his behavior. Everything is done for his convenience. Cities are allowed to become almost impossible to live in because of heavy traffic; towns are made ugly by huge car parks; the countryside is ruined by road networks; and the mass annual slaughter becomes nothing more than a statistic, to be conveniently forgotten.
It is high time a world system of laws were created to reduce this senseless waste of human life. As for driving, the laws of some countries are not strict and even the strictest are not strict enough. Here are a few examples of some the things that might be done. The driving test should be standardized and made far more difficult than it is; all the drivers should be made to take a test every three years or so; the age at which young people are allowed to drive any vehicle should be raised to at least 21; all vehicles should be put through strict annual tests for safety. Even the smallest amount of alcohol in the blood can affect a person’s driving ability. Present drinking and driving laws (where they exist) should be made much stricter. Maximum and minimum speed limits should be introduced on all roads. Governments should lay down safety specifications (规范) for manufacturers, as has been done in the USA. All advertising stressing power and performance should be banned. These measures may sound inordinately severe. But surely nothing should be considered as too severe if it results in reducing the annual toll of human life. After all, the world is for human beings, not motor-cars.The main idea of this passage is_________.
| A．Traffic accidents are mainly caused by motorists. |
| B．Thousands of people the world over are killed each year. |
| C．The laws of some countries about driving are not too strict. |
| D．Only stricter traffic laws can prevent accidents. |
What does the author think of society toward motorists?
| A．Society laughs at the motorists. |
| B．Huge car parks are built in the cities and towns. |
| C．Victims of accidents are nothing. |
| D．Society forgives their rude driving. |
Why does the author say: “his car becomes the extension of his personality?”
| A．Driving can show his real self. |
| B．Driving can show the other part of his personality. |
| C．Driving can bring out his character. |
| D．His car can express his temper. |
The attitude of the author is_________.
| A．ironical | B．critical |
| C．appealing | D．favorable |
In ancient Japan, if you saved someone’s life, they would make it their duty to spend the rest of their life serving you. Nowadays, if you rescue someone’s story, he or she will feel the same kind of gratitude(感激).
It happens all the time. Someone in a group is telling a story and, just before their big point, BOOM! There’s an interruption. Someone new joins the group, a waiter with a plate of biscuits comes over, or a baby starts crying. Suddenly everyone’s attention turns to the new arrival, the food on the plate, or the “charming” little child. Nobody is aware of the interruption — except the speaker. They forget all about the fact that the speaker hasn’t made his or her point.
Or you’re all sitting around the living room and someone is telling a joke. Suddenly, just before his big punch line(妙语), little Johnny drops a dish or the phone rings. After the crash, everyone talks about little Johnny’s carelessness. After the call, the subject turns to the upcoming marriage or medical operation of the caller. Nobody remembers the great punch line got unfinished — except the joke teller. When it’s you entertaining everyone at a restaurant, have you ever noticed how you can almost set your clock by the waiter coming to take everyone’s order just before your funny punch line?
Most joke and story tellers are too shy to say, after the interruption, “Now, as I was saying…” Instead, they’ll spend the rest of the evening feeling bad they didn’t get to finish. Here’s where you come in. Rescue them with the technique I call “Lend a Helping Tongue.”
Watch the gratitude in the storyteller’s eyes as he stabilizes where his story sunk and he sails off again toward the center of attention. His expression and the appreciation of your consideration by the
rest of the group are often reward enough. You are even more fortunate if you can rescue the story of someone who can hire you, promote you, buy from you, or otherwise lift your life. Big winners have excellent memories. When you do them subtle favors like Lend a Helping Tongue, they find a way to pay you back.
Very often, a storytelle
r cannot make his point because ______.
| A．people are more interested in food than his story |
| B．many guests bring their babies to the party |
| C．his story is easily forgotten by the listeners |
| D．he is interrupted by something unexpected |
From Paragraph 3, we know that when someone is telling a joke, ______.
| A．something bad will surely happen just before their punch line |
| B．the only person really interested in the joke is the joke teller |
| C．listeners’ attention is often drawn to something else |
| D．the waiter knows when to take everyone’s order |
How can we “Lend a Helping Tongue” to the story tellers, according to the writer?
| A．Comfort them to make them happy. |
| B．Give them a chance to finish. |
| C．Go on telling the story for them. |
| D．Teach them some useful techniques. |
What is the text mainly about?
| A．People should learn how to take turns in a conversation. |
| B．Telling jokes will make you the center of attention. |
| C．We can win someone’s heart by getting him back to his story. |
| D．It is impolite to cut in on someone’s talk. |
When you think about math, you probably don’t think about breaking the law, solving mysteries or finding criminals. But a mathematician in Maryland does, and he has come up with mathematical tools to help police find criminals.
People who solve crimes look for patterns that might reveal(揭示) the identity of the criminal. It’s long been believed, for example, that criminals will break the law closer to where they live, simply because it’s easier to get around in their own neighborhood. If police see a pattern of robberies in a certain area, they may look for a suspect(嫌疑犯) who lives near the crime scenes. So, the farther away from the area a crime takes place, the less likely it is that the same criminal did it.
But Mike O’Leary, a mathematician at Towson University in Maryland, says that this kind of approach may be too simple. He says that police may get better clues to the locati
on of a criminal’s home base by combining these patterns with a city’s layout(布局) and historical crime records.
The records of past crimes contain geographic
al information and can reveal easy targets — that is, the kind of stores that might be less difficult to rob. Because these stores are along roads, the locations of past crimes contain information about where major streets and intersections are. O’Leary is writing a new computer program that will quickly provide this kind of information for a given city. His program also includes information about the people who live in the city, and information about how a criminal’s patterns change with age. It’s been shown, for example, that the younger the criminal, the closer to home the crime.
Other computer programmers have worked on similar software, but O’Leary’s uses more math. The mathematician plans to make his computer program available, free of charge, to police departments around the country.
The program is just one way to use math to fight crime. O’Leary says that criminology — the study of crime and criminals — contains a lot of good math problems. “I feel like I’m in a gold mine and I’m the only one who knows what gold looks like,” he says. “It’s a lot of fun.”
To find criminals, police usually ______.
| A．focus on where crimes take place | B．seek help from local people |
| C．depend on new mathematical tools | D．check who are on the crime scene |
O’Leary is writing a computer program that ______.
| A．uses math to increase the speed of calculation |
| B．tells the identity of a criminal in a certain area |
| C．shows changes in criminals’ patterns |
| D．provides the crime records of a given city |
By “I’m the only one who knows what gold looks like”, O’Leary means that he ______.
| A．is better at finding gold than others |
| B．is the only one who uses math to make money |
| C．knows more criminals than other mathematicians |
| D．knows best how to use math to help solve crimes |
What is the main idea of the text?
A．Criminals live  near where crimes occur. |
| B．Math could help police find criminals. |
| C．Crime records could be used to fight crime. |
| D．Computer software works in preventing crimes. |
Consult the page adapted from an English dictionary and do Questions 
What does the phrase “green shoots” mean in “Green shoots have begun to appear in different markets”?
| A．Signs of recovery. | B．High prices. |
| C．Environmental protection. | D．Change in policy. |
Fill in the blank in the sentence “I can’t believe this is Joshua—he’s ______ since we last met!”
| A．shot out | B．shot through | C．shot up | D．shot down |
When you are talking about unimportant things, we say you are ______.
| A．shooting yourself in the foot | B．shooting the breeze |
| C．shooting your mouth off | D．shooting questions at somebody |
Choose a word to complete the sentence “The ______, which killed a policeman and wounded a passer-by, was reported to have lasted only 13 seconds.”
| A．shooter | B．shoot | C．shot | D．shooting |
Being the head of a high school for many years, I grew tired of budget meetings, funding cuts, and many other administrative chores(杂务). I started to dream of retirement. Sitting in traffic on a weekday morning, I would find my mind wandering. I would imagine spending time with my grandchildren, quiet evenings with my wife, traveling, or rediscovering some great books. I told myself that I wouldn’t sign myself up for any committees, any classes, or anything requiring a schedule.
My first day of retirement came at last! I cooked a great breakfast fo
r my wife and me, leisurely read the paper, cleaned a bit of the house, and wrote a few letter
s to friends. On the second day, I cooked breakfast, read the paper… On the third day, … This is retirement? I tried to tell myself that it was just the transition(过渡), that those golden moments were right round the corner, and that I would enjoy them soon enough. But something was missing.
A former colleague asked a favor. A group of students was going to Jamaica to work with children in the poorest neighborhoods. Would I interrupt my newfound “happiness” and return to the students, just this once? One trip. That’s all. My bags were packed and by the door.
The trip was very inspiring. I was moved not only by the poverty I saw but also by the sense of responsibility of the young people on the trip. When I returned home, I offered to work one day a week with a local youth organization. The experience was so positive that I was soon volunteering nearly full-time, working with
students across North America to assist them in their voluntary work.
Now, it seems, the tables have turned. Some days I am the teacher, other days I am the student. These young people have reawakened my commitment(责任感) to social justice issues by challenging me to learn more about the situation in the world today, where people are still poor and suffer because of greed, corruption and war. Most important, they have given me the opportunity to continue to participate in helping to find solutions. In return, I help them do their charitable projects overseas. I’ve gone from running one school to helping oversee the construction of schools in twenty-one countries!
What did the writer expect to do after he retired?
| A．To write some great books. |
| B．To stay away from busy schedules. |
| C．To teach his grandchildren. |
| D．To plan for his future. |
Why did the writer decide to go to Jamaica?
| A．He wasn’t satisfied with his retired life. |
| B．He couldn’t refuse his colleague’s favor. |
C．He was concerned about  the people there. |
| D．He missed his students in that country. |
The underlined part “the tables have turned” (Paragraph 5) most probably means that the writer ______.
| A．improved the situation in his school |
| B．felt happy to work with students again |
C．c hanged his attitude toward his retirement |
| D．became a learner rather than a teacher |
What does the writer think of his retired life now?
| A．Meaningful. | B．Troublesome. |
| C．Relaxing. | D．Disappointing. |
I start to wonder what else had changed since I’d been gone.My parents are in an awkward puzzle, wondering how to treat me now----whether to treat me—still their daughter—as one of them, an adult, or as the child they feel they sent away months earlier.
I run into two of my best friends from high school; we stare at each other,expressionless. We ask the simple questions and give simple answers.It’s as if we have nothing to say to each other.I wonder how things have changed so much in such a small amount of time.We used to laugh and promise that no matter how far away we were, our love for each other would never change.Their interests don’t interest me anymore, and I find myself unable to relate my life to theirs.
I had been so excited to come home, but now I just look at it all and wonder: Is it me? Why hadn’t the world stood still here while I was gone? My room isn’t the same, my friends and I don’t share the same promise, and my parents don’t know how to treat me—or who I am, for that matter.
I get back to school feeling half-satisfied, but not disappointed. I sit up in my bed in my dorm room, surrounded by my pictures, dolls.As I wonder what has happened, I realize that I can’t expect the world to stand still and move forward at the same time. I can change and expect that things at home will stay the same.I have to find comfort in what has changed and what is new; keep the memories, but live in the present.
A few weeks later, I’m packing again, this time for winter break.My mom meets me at the door. I have come home accepting the changes, not only in my surroundings, but most of all in me.
What can we infer about the writer?
| A．She is a high school student. | B．She is a college student. |
| C．She is a clerk in a school. | D．She is a traveler. |
. What surprises the writer most?
| A．The living conditions of her parents. |
| B．The decorations in her room. |
| C．The meeting with her best friends. |
| D．The things still staying the same. |
What is this passage mainly about?
| A．The writer’s curiosity about the changes. |
| B．The changes in the writer’s surroundings and in herself. |
| C．The writer’s disappointment about the changes. |
| D．The writer’s refusal to accept the changes. |